My Thrifty Ways to Save Money

suki1964

I have a friend who fishes but his wife doesn't like fish, so I swap eggs for fish and a dressmaker who does take ups for me I make scones mad potato bread for

Another friend helped me paint a zillion ( so it seemed at the time) doors, he got a hair cut and a casserole . Also if he's been out lamping, I'll get the rabbits to cook, some for him, some for us ( he skins them)

Don't think of it as barter, just country living, sharing what we have so we don't waste

All our neighbours got sprout and cabbage plants from us earlier in the year as we had too many for ourselves. Those same neighbours are the ones who give a hand out if we need help with cars or a loan of a trailer


Well it's cold and wet here, very very wet. Heating is on for a few hours a day now and the fires are getting lit more frequently. The hens are slowing down now but the kindling sales are picking up so still managing to get a few quid for their food and bedding ( shavings are dearer then feed :eek:)

Cold dark wet nights are ideal for cheap as chips warming stodgy meals. Took a run out to the poultry factory at the weekend and picked up huge trays of mixed thighs and drumsticks for £1. 6 large thighs and eight drumsticks made 3 litres of chicken broth, dinner for 3 and chicken drumsticks left over for DH packed lunches. :T

Also got some chicken breast joints for £1. They say feeds two, but add a few pigs in blankets and a bit of stuffing, will feed 3 easily

Between my haul there and the lidl offers on veg and what's coming out of the garden, it's been a pretty cheap couple of weeks food wise

Which is good because DH is spending money like its going out of fashion :eek:


MITSTM I had the same problems as you, and the mirena saved my sanity . Had my last one fitted two years ago aged 50 and whilst I'm now peri menopausal, it's staying put till I'm 60 . Like you I spent a fortune on protection, night times was the worse, tampon and two very large towels - miracle I'm not bow legged :rotfl:
Apart from the facial hair growth, the extra padding around the rum and the occasional spells of hot flushes I'm seem to be sailing through. The hot flushes seem to come in clusters, be plagued for a week or so, then don't have one for months. Will be glad when I'm out the other side all the same

Did anyone see if their local Tesco are now offering up their sell by food to local charities? Great news for the charities but a bit of a bummer for us that ys shop

tallyhoh

Can I join in? OH just been made redundant at 65 & I'm not fit to work so cutting back a lot.
Took an old phone up to CEX to sell & made £42, well chuffed. Taking out £35 every Monday & that will have to cover everything from now on.

Talking of collecting coins, I did notice that the local NatWest has a deposit machine that takes coins, will check it out further. I usually exchange my small coins every week for savings stamps at Mossa's.

I do run a soup kitchen once a week in our local town but it looks like that will have to go now.

suki1964

tallyhoh wrote: »

Can I join in? OH just been made redundant at 65 & I'm not fit to work so cutting back a lot.
Took an old phone up to CEX to sell & made £42, well chuffed. Taking out £35 every Monday & that will have to cover everything from now on.

Talking of collecting coins, I did notice that the local NatWest has a deposit machine that takes coins, will check it out further. I usually exchange my small coins every week for savings stamps at Mossa's.

I do run a soup kitchen once a week in our local town but it looks like that will have to go now.

It needn't. Get in touch with tesco. They are starting a food donation to local charities. There's forms to fill and criteria to meet, but it's worth a try

I_Love_comps

Welcome tallyhoh to the thread, very sorry to hear that your husband has been made redundant.

I would suggest that you join a few survey sites - they are a bit time consuming and can take a while before cash out , but some pay cash or vouchers , which I find useful.
Freebie sites and coupons may also get you a few items which may help .

I_Love_comps

Morning Everyone,

It's Friday and even better for me I break up today for a weeks holiday. Not going anywhere - but I work at a school and it is half term.
No NSDs for me.

I do not buy much from the co-op, but I must say I am impressed by there £5 meal deals.
There latest one is;
Beef Lasagne
Peas
Mccain oven chips
Dough balls
Cart d'or Ice cream

I managed to win the vast amount of 10p on the topcashback halloween game - won't rush out to spend this. LOL.

Have a good Friday :j:j:j:j

Towser

I buy/give and sell/recycle with the following:

Freecycle
Carboots
Ebay, Amazon
Charity Shops
CEX
Pre loved clothing

Are there any others we should know about?

I buy from if I absolutely have to from Primark, New Look and H&M as well as B&M stores, Aldi, Wilkinsons and Poundland when the above list has been exhausted. Are there any others we should know about?

t14cy_t

jumble sales!!! i just love em. xx

I_Love_comps

Home Bargains
Savers

For anything I need I buy in the sales.

determined_new_ms

some things I do - which would probably be considered extreme to others! - to make small savings:

I no longer simmer rice/pasta to cook it, got this tip from the os board recently. Just put it in a saucepan of boiled water, bring it to the boil then turn off heat. Cover for the required amount of *cooking* time and voila tis done! This was a massive revelation to me!

grow stuff myself, freeze as much as I can

we always use less than the recommended amount of pasta/rice so for example rice is 75grms per serving pp. I measure out 150gms is enough for me, oh and 3yo with a portion leftover for lunch the following day

I make a cake once a fortnight & freeze 1/2 so we have a sweet treat in for whenever we fancy

I go gc shopping fortnightly have found this has massively reduced our gc bill

I use a lot of pulses to up protein and lower gc costs

I make most things - food or consumables. Have just found most things I can do myself

I've recently started turning off the microwave when it's not in use

if I want/need something I think about what could be used instead. When I started making my own greek yogurt I needed muslin. Looked on ebay and I was looking at about £6 for a piece. Over the next couple of weeks looked out for something suitable in charity shops and found a scarf which was perfect for 50p

Currently wearing multiple jumpers and blankets in the evening to keep warm instead of heating

I've recently (4 months ago) committed to not buying anything new for a year. It's going well so far (2 wobbles so far! of £24.51 on new clothes for lo & £7 on a wooly hat for me. Actually hat wasn't a wobble was planned, not on impulse, considered it for a week then borrowed a friend's discount card so got £5 off retail price). Because of this challenge I am now always considering if I really need something, can the stuff I already have do/be used instead, can I get something else instead, can I borrow it or get something for free instead.

Caterina

We use a very old iPad (which I bought ages ago for my DH's birthday) in favour of the laptop and we are sure there must be quite a saving in electricity.

I have just ordered £200 worth of bulk groceries (organic grains, pulses, vinegar etc) and this lot, on top of the dry goods I already have, should do us for the next 6 months at least. Will only have to buy fresh veg and eggs and top up on nuts and seeds (we make our own nut milks) if the first lot runs out.

As we eat porridge often for breakfast, cooked with water and nut milk, I suspect we will have to get more nuts at some time.

Apart from the veg we grow ourselves, I get organic veg at a discount from DD's work, she works at a veg distribution firm, so when she orders for herself I can get some myself.

Also, just before DH retired I topped up the sainsbobs and the marks cards, as we get respectively 5% and 8% discount on what we buy (eg £100 worth of goods cost us £95 in sains and £92 in marks). I use the cards jointly with vouchers, nectar points, special offers etc for household and pet food, as well as occasional fresh or tinned fish, it saves us a fortune.